Donald Glover – C-VILLE Weekly

Too soon: The Lion King raises questions about re-shooting beloved animated classics

Is anyone actually this nostalgic? Beneath the song and dance and snappy dialogue in the new Lion King is a feeling of resignation and inevitability. This reenactment—remake would imply that something is different from the beloved 1994 animated film—fails to explain to puzzled audiences why it exists at all. It’s not live action like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. It’s not a subversion like Maleficent. This is the same movie with the same songs, only with photorealistic animation where the lions are bound by real physics. The result is even less immersive. It turns out that real lions pacing back and forth uneventfully isn’t as much fun as show-stopping musical numbers. Who knew?

That said, The Lion King might not be a miserable experience for those who are fond of the source material. It has the songs you love, performed by capable voices (Donald Glover, Beyoncé, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Oliver, Eric Andre, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen). It has exactly the same jokes, only this time Puumba actually says “farted” instead of getting cut off. The technology is impressive, even if it is strange to hear Beyoncé’s commanding voice from a totally indifferent-looking cat.

Imagine you’re at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. They close with “Freebird.” Then, for the encore, they play it again right away, but this time with the house lights totally on. It’s still “Freebird,” just way too soon and with a less compelling presentation. That’s what it’s like watching this movie. The title may as well have been The Lion King: Again.

Director Jon Favreau has been at the cutting edge of incorporating realistic computer animation with the intent of making fantastical plot points feel totally natural in the world of the film, from Tony Stark’s CG suit in Iron Man to Mowgli’s interactions with animals of all types in The Jungle Book. The effect worked beautifully in those films: the wholly impractical suit looks perfect, and Mowgli’s companions not only look great, but carry all of the emotional weight of genuine characters. In The Lion King, Favreau pushes the limits of what we’ll believe so far that the audience forgets that there were limits in the first place. But, if a live-ish Lion King remake was inevitable, we probably should be grateful it was Favreau behind the camera, a filmmaker who cares about the balance between technique and engagement. It could have been worse.

The last thing in the world a Disney film needs is realism. Even the recent live-action remakes rely on magic and wonder to carry the plot. That’s why people see these movies. The advances in animation technology are impressive (bordering on scary), but making a Shakespearean power struggle look like an episode of “Planet Earth” is not an improvement. Everything else is either exactly as good or slightly worse. What is this, other than a way of testing new tech? Who is this for? Why?

The Lion King / PG, 118 minutes /Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema 375 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213. Violet Crown Cinema 200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000, Check theater websites for listings.

See it again
Mary Poppins / G, 180 minutes / The Paramount Theater / July 28

Movie review: Solo: A Star Wars Story fills the blockbuster role

Like its title character, Solo: A Star Wars Story often threatens to go wildly off track and ruin everything it has going for it, before it comes back with charm and skill, ready to save the day despite its rough edges. The second, after Rogue One, of the so-called Star Wars anthology films—stories that take place within the broader Star Wars universe but are not necessarily directly tied to the events of the main films—Solo plays like an old-fashioned summer feel-good blockbuster, from the era when franchise tentpoles weren’t being released every three months. It’s a movie full of engaging performances, creative visuals, daring heists and double-crosses so tense you’ll forget you already know which characters make it out alive.

Solo: A Star Wars Story
PG-13, 143 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

The story follows Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) from his humble origins as a slave on a scrap planet to the rogue we came to love. During a botched escape attempt, Han and his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) are separated, and it becomes his life’s mission to save her. His enthusiasm for theft and smuggling, and his inability to quit in the face of adversity, catches the attention of a crew led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), who owes a very large sum to Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), leader of crime syndicate and near-paramilitary organization the Crimson Dawn. To pull off a heist big enough, they employ the help of suave gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), owner of the Millennium Falcon.

It’s tough to say if Solo would work as a stand-alone film had the other Star Wars movies never come out, but there are several scenes that capture the excitement of the original trilogy, and some sequences would even work in a non-SW story. A twist on a classic train robbery immediately stands out, and at least two other extended sequences make this well worth the price of admission. Ehrenreich sells Han’s hunger for the next adventure and bigger scores, grounding his key character traits and testing them with clever moral dilemmas. Harrelson, Clarke and Bettany all appear to be enjoying themselves as well, but the true scene-stealer is Glover. As Lando, he brings life and humor to the iconic part, elevating the role beyond mere imitation of key quirks. On the downside, the movie is about 20 minutes too long, and the notion that every trait of Han Solo’s has its origins in a single story is a little corny, answering questions that no one asked, simply as exposition for its own sake.

Much has been made of Solo’s troubled history: Original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) were fired after most of filming had already been completed, with apparent disagreements between the team and the studio over tone, working style and the level of improvisation on set, with substantial changes to the screenplay by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan. Ron Howard was brought on to reshoot approximately 70 percent of what had been completed so far. The inclusion of Lord & Miller had been an early selling point for Solo, showing Disney was willing to take risks with the newly acquired Lucasfilm, but the sudden replacement with a more-or-less safe filmmaker like Howard, plus casting concerns, led many to doubt Solo in advance. If this had not been in the news prior to Solo’s release, none of it would have been apparent in the final product, which is tight, exciting, consistent and most important of all, a heck of a lot of fun.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Avengers: Infinity War, Book Club, Deadpool 2, RBG

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

A Quiet Place, Avengers: Infinity War, Breaking In, Book Club, Deadpool 2, Life of the Party, Pope Francis-A Man of His Word, Show Dogs

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Avengers: Infinity War, Book Club, Deadpool 2, Disobedience, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, Isle of Dogs, RBG, Show Dogs, Tully